Paula Bernardino, MCM, CSR-P, SCMP, MC

Strategic Communication Management Professional (SCMP) with 20 years of experience, Paula has an expertise in strategic corporate communications and public relations acquired while working for large global corporations and not-for-profit organizations. Specializing in Corporate Responsibility since 2014, she has been responsible for the implementation and management of a company’s corporate responsibility strategy and engagement in Canada, responsible to increase internal and external awareness regarding the company’s commitment to corporate responsibility, while creating, implementing and managing an award winning Regional Charity Program. She won the “Best Paper – Practitioner” award at 2020 CCI Milan Conference on Corporate Communication on September 17, 2020 for her study “Engaging Employees through Corporate Social Responsibility Programs” conducted in July 2020.

Paula is currently a strategic independent consultant in communications and corporate social responsibility while also guest speaking at conferences and panels on sustainability, corporate social responsibility and strategic communications. Throughout the years, she developed and implemented national public relations and communications plans, been responsible for event management, sponsorship management, partnership negotiation, committees’ management, internal and external communications as well as media relations.

Passionate to develop and implement a sustainability culture across all sectors of a company and put forward the strategic importance of corporate sustainability, she obtained a certificate in Business Sustainability Management from Cambridge University in May 2017 and successfully completed the Climate Reality Leadership Corps training by the Climate Reality Project in October 2017. She was the Climate Reality Canada Lead Mentor for the Montreal region from 2019 to 2023. Paula also became a certified CSR Practitioner from the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE), approved by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), in June 2018.

She is also a course lecturer at McGill University in the Public Relations program. And she is the instructor at the University of Ottawa’s Professional Development Institute for media training, issues management and crisis communication. Paula completed the Masters in Communications Management from the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University in September 2015. Her case study Adopting versus Adapting a PR Plan: Investigating Why and How Public Relations Plans Must be Adapted to Specific Publics was published in The McMaster Journal of Communication, Volume 11, Special Issue 2014 in December 2016 – https://journals.mcmaster.ca/mjc/article/view/1411

The two studies she conducted with the Credibility Institute in July 2020 were published in peer-reviewed journals.

Engaging Employees Through Corporate Social Responsibility Programs: Aligning Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement was published in the Journal of Organizational Psychology Vol. 21 No. 1 (2021) (https://doi.org/10.33423/jop.v21i1.4029). Responsible CSR Communications: Avoid “Washing” Your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reports and Messages was published in the Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics Vol. 18 No. 1 (2021) (https://doi.org/10.33423/jlae.v18i1.4007).

She also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from McGill University, a Graduate Diploma in Sport Administration from the John Molson School of Business at Concordia University, and a Certificate in Public Relations Management from McGill University.

Paula joined the board of Desjardins Insurance in 2021. She is also a board member of the Montreal-based credit union Caisse Desjardins Portugaise since 2009 where she was nominated President in 2022. She also previously led the Ethics, Cooperation and Governance committee and previously acted as Board Secretary and Vice President.

Paula was the 2021-2022 Chair for the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Canada East Region. In June 2019, she was nominated to the IABC Canada East Region board as Director of National Programs. She added the Director of Finance role in August 2020. She is Past-President of the young division of the Société québécoise des professionnels en relations publiques (SQPRP) and a past board member of the Montreal chapter of the IABC where she acted as Director of Communications. She is also involved with IABC as an evaluator on the Gold Quill Blue Ribbon Panel since 2017. She’s also been evaluating the IABC Atlanta chapter’s Golden Flame awards since 2017. Paula was appointed Communications Assistant for the 2019 IABC Canada West Region Conference in Banff. Paula is also a judge in the annual CSR case competition event at the University of Montreal’s business school Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC).